The Why of Media

First off, an explanation:

I am taking a class called Media, Family, and Human Development this semester. For this class, I have to write one blog post each week about my thoughts on the media I have seen that week.

So here is my first post:

We talked in class today about why people watch what they do on TV. As someone who watches a lot of different TV shows (and I mean, a lot), I thought I would talk about the shows that pull me back. The ones that I watch over and over again, not just the new episodes as they come out. After going through all my shows, I ended up with the top three shows that are my go-to shows when I don't have any new episodes to watch (and sometimes even when I do, because I just love these shows so much)

1. Stargate: SG-1

The main reason why I love this show is pretty simple. This is the first "adult" show I ever watched as a child. This show had 10 seasons that ended when I was in 6th grade, but I had been watching every new episode as they came out since season 7. Of course, back in those days, my parents wouldn't let me stay up to watch them, so we would record it on VHS (gasp) and watch it the next day. So this show will always have a nostalgia factor going for it.

As I have gotten older, this show became something more to me. In my sophomore year of high school, all 214 episodes were on Hulu for free, so I proceeded to watch them all in order. It was definitely a lesson in how much children don't get when watching TV. I missed so many major, overarching plot points. As I got to watch it, I realized how much I loved the characters and the character development. Watching the same character in season 1 and season 10 is so weird, but such a good representation of how people change over the years. It's a good reminder that change is possible, even if it doesn't seem like it at first.

I also find the science fiction aspects really interesting and love how they address various ethical concerns. Obviously, the scenarios can be a bit unrealistic (it is science fiction), but the ethics can easily be related to real-life issues as well.

2. Eureka

This show makes my top three because it's the only show I watch that could count as a comedy. Obviously, all shows have their comedic parts, but this one is the only one that is a comedy. This is also my only other science-fiction show besides Stargate. When I need something funny to watch and just relax, this is what I watch. The reason why this is the only comedy I watch is that it is smart humor (seriously, joking about Boson Cloud Exciters) so I feel like I'm learning something (unlike most humor which makes me feel like I'm losing brain cells by the minute) and it isn't as outrageous and overdone comedy-drama as most comedies.

Also, cool science! So most of the things they show don't exist, but a lot of them are totally plausible. So it's cool science without having to sit in a science class and learn all the nit-gritty details about how these things work.

And as always, I love the characters! They have a lot of variety of characters and situations to be relatable to different people. And they all have something lovable (well, all the main characters) about them even though they all have flaws too (but hey, that's what makes them human).

3. Flashpoint

This is a show that none of you have probably heard of. This is a Canadian crime drama, but it's not quite your standard crime drama. It's all about talking down people who are threatening violence against themselves or others. That's one of the things I appreciate the most about it. It's about using violence only as the absolute last resort. As part of talking people down, they also do a lot of profiling, which is super interesting to me.
The characters are also super lovable (naturally) and it does a good job of showing how the stress of a job like law enforcement can affect an individual and their family. As someone who sees how wrong families are often portrayed on TV, it is nice to see a more realistic look at families and how they handle difficulties.